This Side of the Pulpit » Computers&Productivity, Personal » Getting Things Done
Getting Things Done
After reading about Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
You can find all (and more) you want to know about it all over the ‘net, but the fundamental premise is: get things out of your brain. Put everything on paper. Learn Latin? Write it down. Buy cat food? Write it down. Plan the next phase of your career? Write it down. Get all that stuff out of your brain so that you can process it, file it, trash it or do it. Allen suggests that doing so will make you less anxious, less prone to worry, less prone to those moments where you are trying to enjoy dinner and you think, “Where am I going to move the compost pile?” He says it frees the brain for higher-order, more creative thinking.
I’m on board.
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Filed under: Computers&Productivity, Personal · Tags: books, GTD, pastor's life, productivity
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I find this interesting – as I write nothing down. Well, sermons and bible studies – maybe a cool puzzle in a video game – but that’s about it. I’m the opposite of this. My key to stress is this: Set goal for the day. Attack goal for the day viciously and vigorously, as early as possible. Enjoy the accomplishment whilest picking other tasks off as it pleases you.
But writing things down and getting them out of your head is more than that. How often are we rolling the same things over and over in our brains, Eric?
Even if you do write everything down, GTD only starts with this. I really recommend reading the book, or checking out a few of the many, many websites devoted to it. Just google “gtd”.
Depends on what you have milling around in your head. . . that’s the bigger question. The texts for the upcoming Sunday still mill around my head and shape my week (even having written a draft for the sermon, because in reality, I’m always editing it in my head). Or the liturgy, or prayer – these are good things to have rolling around in our heads. There are many things that are good to have milling around in your head – that need a little mental kneeding.
However, I suppose there are many things that squat in our minds that need no rumination. If this forms a good way for flushing those things, then it might be a very, very good thing. Is the book focused on techniques (or even physical/mental images) to remove that which is unneeded?
It’s not talking about the things on which you need to ruminate, but the things that you need to do that end up causing stress.
Example: The thoughts in my head right now are: need to move the compost bin; Jack’s TBall game; need to do the molding in the kitchen; finish the molding in the dining room; sand and stain the doors; trim carpentry on the floors; do the letter for church; oh! need to call my sister too; and so on and so forth.
The technique is getting it out of your brain on paper/digital–whatever, and determine what the next action is and so forth. It’s more of a mechanical model. There is a strong psychological basis too, in envisioning doing it and so forth.
Hmmm, I probably end up doing a lot of this in my head, simply because when I worked in the writing lab I had to organize and prioritize student athletes on papers — and get what they need organized in my head and then tell them how to prioritize.
I guess this is a trick I’ve known for some time! I write everything down, and I have for years. I think the act of writing it down helps to set it in my head a bit (yep, I was one of those college students who studied for a test by copying all of my notes).
But it gives me a simpleton’s thrill to make a list and cross things off it.
1. Write an intelligent comment on this post.
Uh, it’s not working…
Writing things down is an excellent way to help you maintain your focus, too. For example, when I’m supposed to be working on documenting a website at work, it’s easy to think “hey I haven’t checked Chris’s blog in awhile” and just navigate over here to leave this comment. If I had written down “check in on Chris’s blog”, it would be there where I wouldn’t worry I’d forget to do it, and I could get right back to the docs!
Maybe I’ll do that next time!
This whole conversation is cracking me up! I am just starting the book hoping it will help me not wake in the middle of the night to turn Jack’s light on for him because he had a nightmare, and end up laying awake in bed for hours thinking about all that is going on in life. Then being too tired the next day to do any of those things that need to GET DONE! However, I find myself reading 2 paragraphs then jumping up because I just remembered I had to rotate the laundry (and while doing that, I get distracted by picking up toys, checking our online banking, and then remembering I was already reading another book).
We’ll see; I think my life might be beyond even the best organizational process as all have failed in the recent past. Being a type-A person who loves to be organized, productive, and on top of things, I think my complete failure in recent years is God’s way of reminding me I’m NOT in control…wonder what the book says about that.